Joe Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Since then, he has signed over 50 executive orders on issues regarding Covid-19, immigration, the environment, and more, trying to live up to his campaign promises.

Biden has taken a lot of action involving climate change. He signed an order to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and revoked the permit for the Keystone Pipeline. 

The Paris Climate Accords is an agreement between 189 countries. It was adopted in 2015 with a main goal to reduce greenhouse emissions, adaption and finance as well as preventing the globe from rising two degrees celsius or 35.5 degrees fahrenheit. Trump left the agreement because he felt it was both costly and ineffective. 

The Treaty would cost about $2.5 trillion dollars in gross domestic product by 2035. To put that into perspective, one trillion is equivalent to 31,688 years, 269 days, 17 hours, 34 minutes and 25 seconds. The accord also isn’t treated as an executive order and is in place as a “treaty.” The accord has no penalties for countries that don’t complete their goals.

On the other hand, this agreement has gained a lot of support even from fossil fuel companies, such as Shell. It also has more international consensus than the Kyoto Protocol did. Biden swore that if elected he would rejoin the Paris Climate Accords immediately. Biden held up to that promise and rejoined in his first day to combat global warming.

Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a 1,179 mile pipeline planned to run from Canada to Nebraska before joining an existing pipeline. It was supposed to carry 830,000 barrels of oil each day. Biden shut down the project because a lot of environmentalists and natives have been fighting to keep that land undisturbed. He also said  “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.” Since Biden rejoined the Paris Climate accords to combat climate change, allowing the pipeline to continue would go against the administration’s environmental efforts.

Although this means that the USA will not be drilling oil, revoking the permit during a pandemic causes hardship for even more families sense there is no telling when the over 1,000 people who (temporarily) lost their jobs will get another. Yes, 1,000 jobs not 11,000 are lost directly from Biden’s order. 11,000 jobs is an estimate from when TC Energy stated that they would hire over 11,000 people to work on the pipeline. As of right now, there is no telling of when the former Keystone Pipeline workers new green jobs will be ready. The other thing is that only one and two tenths miles of the pipeline was completed and that was in Montana, near the Canadan border.

Unfortunately, Biden’s decision is said to have a devastating impact on New Mexico and plummete its economy. In addition to shutting down the pipeline, Biden also prohibited new oil and natural gas leases as well as drilling this stuff for 60 days. New Mexico has seven percent of US oil reserves, and this makes up a huge portion of the state’s industry. New Mexico already is the state with the most people on food stamps at 21.49% partially because of the lack of industry. 20.6% of the state lives below the poverty line, making the state have the second highest poverty rate.  

The 2020 pandemic is still occuring and doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. Biden promised he had a plan to get the virus under control, and here are some of the actions he’s taking.

Just hours after being in office, Biden signed an executive order requiring masks on all federal buildings and public transportation in hope of stopping the spread.  He also reinforced previous travel bans against Brazil and most of Europe. The president also placed a ban on South Africa since a new strain of the virus was identified there.

Top Democrats are planning to pass a $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. Biden’s first action in this bill is to provide a $2000 stimulus check per taxpayer. This number includes the $600 check from December. Another aspect of this bill is that people will be able to get a $3,000 tax break per child six to 17 years old or $3,600 for each child under six. The original tax break was 2,000. It is estimated that with this new check and the stimulus check, children living in poverty could be reduced by half. They will spend another $7.5 billion on the paycheck protection plan to provide business relief to help business owners for operating costs and to pay their workers. The plan is also supposed to gradually raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by June 2025. If this part of the bill makes it through the senate, 900,000 people are estimated to be lifted out of poverty. Unfortunately, about 1.4 million jobs would be lost.

On Wednesday Jan. 20, Biden halted construction for the border between the USA and Mexico

The president also unveiled the Immigration Reform BIll on Feb. 18 of this year. The bill paves a eight year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Part of the bill will provide these people a temporary status for five years, and they will be able to get citizenship three years after that. The bill will also increase border security guards and focus on detecting drugs and other contraband. The bill will also reword the immigration code and replace the word “alien” with “non-citizen.”

President Biden also plans to launch a task force to reunite kids with their parents at the borders. 

Biden has been passing order after order trying to please his party and unite the county. He is trying to help out with climate change by rejoining the Paris Accords, shutting down the pipeline and prohibiting drilling for oil. He has created a covid relief bill, in which the government will give $1.9 trillion to try to help out citizens and businesses. He is also trying to reunite families and keep the borders secure without a wall. 

We are witnessing this historical year and will be the ones to see the effect after Biden’s term is over. The president has already passed over 50 executive orders and it keeps the public wondering; what will he do next?